Todd, Tim and Kellan Cook love Baseball, the Seattle Mariners and trekking around the country to visit stadiums and watch games. These are their stories. #FatherSonBaseball

Results tagged ‘ Oaks ’

On Saturday evening, we attended Mariners turn-back-the-clock night. It was 1939 and it was a match up between the Oakland Oaks and the Seattle Rainiers.

Do you notice people peaking out below the scoreboard? I’ve never been in there, but there is a bar under the scoreboard where you can have a cheese steak and a beer while watching the game through that little sliver of fencing.

The M’s gave a Rainiers hat to the first 20,000 fans, including us:

Notice in the scoreboard picture, that there is a small We arrived in time for the last few minutes of batting practice, so we snooped around a bit before the game started. Here is a notice printed on the padded railing down the third base line:

The M’s are apparently trying to sound a bit more legal for their patrons. They could have just said “will be removed.” Anyway, here is the inner workings of the hand operated scoreboard in the LF corner:

When we entered the stadium, my mom took Tim to the kids play area. So I went over there to meet up with them. On the way, I stopped by the standing area behind the bullpens. Here are a couple views looking through the bullpen from the SRO area:

I then met up with my folks and Tim in the play area. Tim was having a blast in there.

When we were over by the play area, they announced that Griff would be DH’ing for the Rainiers. In our fifth attempt, it was only the second time Tim would see Griff play.

We then watched the Savoy Swing Club put on a rousing swing performance:

Tim really wanted to dance with them. We had the following conversation while watching:

Tim: I want to go dance.

Todd: The floor is only for the dancers.

Tim: I’m a dancer.

Todd: Its only for the special dancers.

Tim: I’m a special dancer.

Todd: They’re a dance team. Its only for a dance team.

Tim: I’m on a team.

It was a persuasive argument. Unfortunately for Tim, it didn’t work.

We then watched Bill Krueger and Angie Mentink preparing to broadcast a little pre-game “Mariners Live” from center field. Look how excited they were about their jobs!

Next up, the Mariners photo team took our picture in CF and my dad took this picture of us getting our picture taken by the Mariners photo team. FYI, if you have a little boy on your shoulders at any MLB park (as far as I can tell), the home team’s photo team will hunt you down and say, “How about a picture for Mariners/Phillies/Mets/Orioles/Yankees/NameYourTeam.com?” They’ll then generally take a fairly unimpressive picture of you that you can pay to put in any type of frame, shirt, etc., on the team’s webpage. Here are some examples from mariners.com, mariners.com, mariners.com, and mets.com. Anyway, I think my Dad’s picture is better than the official picture:

Finally, it was time to go sit down for the game. My folks sat in their normal seats, which they switched to the 1B side for this season after years on the 3B side. Tim and I sat in section 110 again (same as for part of the game last night). We had tickets with my buddy Paul in section 335 (upper deck on 3B side), but we never sent up there. Here is an odd picture of the stands from section 110, I’m not sure why I took this. But you can see part of the roof:

Here is Tim’s first pitch seeing Griffey bat for the Mariners. Griff took a ball low. I was a little disappointed that his first game seeing Griff play for the Mariners was in a Rainiers uniform. Absolutely everything at the park was referencing the Rainiers, not the Mariners. Here is the pitch:

Tim had a blast in Section 110. Watching the game with Paul made it all the better. Tim was super-excited to see Paul. In the late innings, we went over to Section 120 where my parents had moved to the back rows to avoid the rain. Although the roof was closed, the rain was still blowing in and getting people wet in certain sections. Here was our view from Section 120:

Here is a shot of me and Paulie:

Although Griff didn’t get any hits, it was a great game. Jarrod Washburn pitched an excellent game and gave up only 1 run in 7 innings. However, the bullpen blew the lead and the M’s lost 3-2. The Oaks scored their final run in the top of the ninth on a single to right. Ichiro came up gunning and had the guy thrown out at home by about 15 feet. Unfortunately, rookie catcher Rob Johnson decided to try to block the one-hopper rather than try to catch it and apply the tag. It was a stupid idea. There is no way in the world you get the guy out by blocking a throw to the plate. If he had tried to catch the ball but dropped it, the guy would have been just as safe as he was when Johnson tried to block the throw. On the other hand, had he tried to catch it and succeed, the runner would have been out easily and we’d have gone to extra innings. Oh, well.

After the game, we took a few pictures down by the dugouts before heading out. Here are the best two:

We’ll re-group tomorrow and try it again. After this game, the Mariners were 1-1 with me and Tim in attendance.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.